Offender faces indefinite detention at state institution after cutting deal in 2009

Published 7:45 pm, Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Chad Allan Bean, pictured in a King County Sheriff's Office photo. Bean is a registered sex offender currently facing indefinite confinement at a state center for adjudicated sexual predators.

Chad Allan Bean, pictured in a King County Sheriff's Office photo. Bean is a registered sex offender currently facing indefinite confinement at a state center for adjudicated sexual predators.

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Chad Bean, pictured in a Department of Corrections photo. Bean is a registered sex offender currently facing indefinite confinement at a state center for adjudicated sexual predators.

Chad Bean, pictured in a Department of Corrections photo. Bean is a registered sex offender currently facing indefinite confinement at a state center for adjudicated sexual predators.

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A rainbow forms over the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. The Department of Social and Health Services-run center houses houses convicted sex offenders who've served their prison time but are deemed violent sexual predators. less

A rainbow forms over the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. The Department of Social and Health Services-run center houses houses convicted sex offenders who've served their prison time but are deemed ... more

Photo: Joshua Trujillo, Seattlepi.com

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The Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island, pictured in 2011.

The Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island, pictured in 2011.

Photo: Joshua Trujillo, Seattlepi.com

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A ferry operator heads toward McNeil Island. McNeil was home to the last island prison in the United States. A secure mental institution for violent sexual predators -- the Special Commitment Center -- is now the only tenant on the island. less

A ferry operator heads toward McNeil Island. McNeil was home to the last island prison in the United States. A secure mental institution for violent sexual predators -- the Special Commitment Center -- is now ... more

Photo: Joshua Trujillo, Seattlepi.com

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McNeil Island Corrections Center closed in 2011. The Pierce County island is currently home to the state's Special Commitment Center, a secure institution for violent sexual predators.

McNeil Island Corrections Center closed in 2011. The Pierce County island is currently home to the state's Special Commitment Center, a secure institution for violent sexual predators.

A Seattle sex offender fresh from prison may spend the rest of his life confined for, among other allegations, twice copulating with a vacuum cleaner.

Having since admitted to sexually assaulting at least 40 people, Chad Allan Bean was arrested in 2009 after attacking a woman at a bar in Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood. Bean was sentenced to five years in prison – an exceptionally long term for his crime – after striking a deal to avoid indefinite confinement as a violent sex offender.

Now, though, King County prosecutors hope to see Bean locked up at a state center for violent sexual predators in Pierce County. Prosecutors claim Bean is on track to attack again and has violated his probation by viewing pornography while also acting out his rape fantasies on a vacuum cleaner.

Prosecutors have asked a King County Superior Court judge to order that Bean, 37, be confined indefinitely at the Special Commitment Center, a security facility on McNeil Island run by the Department of Social and Health Services. Offenders found by to be violent sexual predators may be held at the center until state officials deem them fit for release.

Writing the court, Deputy Prosecutor Christine Keating argued Bean is eligible to be held at the center – he’s likely to attack again, Keating said, because of mental problems. Bean could spend the rest of his life there, if prosecutors prevail.

Last sentenced to prison in 2010, Bean had been slated to be released on May 14 from the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, where he’d been held on suspicion of a probation violation. Instead, Bean was transferred to the McNeil Island center as the civil commitment case against him proceeds.

Bean’s most recent criminal conviction stems from a September 2009 attack at Kristos, an Eastlake Avenue East bar that has since closed.

Charging papers show Bean, having hidden in the women’s restroom, forced his way inside an occupied stall. Exposing himself, he pummeled the woman until she was able to yell for help. The woman later told police she believed Bean was trying to knock her out and rape her.

Bean was initially charged with second-degree assault with sexual motivation. If proven, that charge would’ve seen him receive an indefinite sentence – state prison officials would’ve been allowed to detain him until he was found fit for release, a power similar to that given to administrators at the Special Commitment Center.

Ultimately, Bean pleaded guilty to a reduced assault charge and related offenses that saw him sentenced to five years in prison. He was released April 2, 2013.

Bean’s history of sexual assaults predates the 2009 attack by two decades.

According to a psychological report conducted at the prosecution’s request, Bean claims to have first offended at age 11. In the years since, he claimed to have offended against about 40 people, groping and raping some, peeping on or exposing himself to others.

“Bean acknowledged groping them, … raping them and masturbating in front of them while they were asleep and presumably unaware,” Keating said in the civil action.

Keating said Bean has twice “acted out his deviant fantasies by pretending to get into a fight with his vacuum cleaner as foreplay, and then having sex with it, in essence simulating a rape fantasy.”

Bean was previously convicted in Texas of attempted sexual assault, as well as indecent exposure following a separate incident there.

Most recently, Bean is alleged to have begun violating conditions of his probation within weeks of being released into the community.

Despite directives not to do so, Bean sought out pornography, according to court papers. The psychologist described the behavior as Bean’s “build-up to offending.”

“Asked how he thought he was likely to reoffend, Mr. Bean stated that he felt it was likely he would engage in exhibitionism, although he could not rule out a hands-on offense,” a psychologist said in charging papers, recalling a May 4 interview with Bean.

Bean admitted in June to masturbating in public and described himself wanting to have sex “at all costs,” according to charging papers. His probation officer and a polygraph examiner found his denial that he’d exposed himself to strangers unconvincing.

The prosecution’s psychologist diagnosed Bean with several sexual disorders and opined that he is represents a high risk to reoffend.

To prevail under Washington’s civil commitment law, prosecutors must show that an offender is likely to sexually assault again, and that the offender has a mental abnormality making him so. If a jury or judge agrees with prosecutors, an offender can be sent to the Special Commitment Center.

While several offenders have "graduated" from the program and more than a dozen others are living off the island, most remain at the facility. They make up about 1 percent of the sex offenders convicted in Washington courts.

Bean remains confined on McNeil Island. His public defender declined to comment on the allegations, which were made May 12 in a civil lawsuit filed by prosecutors.